Thats a good idea! As discussed last time, I am asking Dr Claire Sullivan (cyber lawyer!) of Georgetown university to write a piece on digital identity, should be good to have a legal perspective to this.

And about Katie Ellis, she will publish her essay with us too, she just agreed, so this is really coming together nicely.

October 14, 2015

Hi we got your email with the text, and translated it..

could you check it? it's in your inbox...

Ah some things would need to be translated differnetly I think, I will send you some suggestions

Its difficult to translate it with the right tone..

your writing is really nice and personal in English, quite hard to translate to German!

0: 59-1: 59
The practice of military for hire became customary in Italy from the 14/15th century AD. In the run of the 16th century it was widely used in almost all of Europe. In the great battles of the 16th century the military were largely no longer feudal followers, so vassals of the warlord, but hired, paid mercenaries. In Hessen one spoke of "sold" mercenaries. They each had individual contracts with conflict entrepreneurs, Fritz Redlich already mentioned an emergence of so-called "Military Enterprises" in the 1950s. The conflict entrepreneurs in this model were, somewhat between the ordinary soldiers, the mercenaries, the peasants, with whom he concludes contracts, and the warlord, who then rented his regiment.
2: 33-3: 54
After the 30 year war this changed. In the peace treaty of Westphalia, the legal use of military force was only conceded to sovereign rulers. No longer could any nobleman or city mobilise an army and go to war, it would disturb the peace. As a sovereign ruler of the empire, however, one could "reinforce" the empire. Since many of these rulers, however, had only very small territories, which were also highly indebted and destroyed by the 30-year war, they could actually not afford a military. So they, as the Condolieri, the military entrepreneurs in Italy before, set up a troupe, that was then rented by major warring powers in Europe. These were especially England, the Netherlands, then known as the General States, the Republic, as well as France or Italy.
4: 51-4: 52
In the empire's territories the ruler (Friedrich II) himself was the entrepreneur. Each regiment was its own business entity, they had for example, their own accounting etc.
7: 54-8: 27
The military company is the smallest economic unit in this, every captain is himself a small subcontractor. Particularly in Hessen were many commoners, that became officers deliberately to achieve social mobility. Some were even promoted to colonels or raised to peerage.

9: 19-9: 45
Especially during the American deployment there was a lot of criticism from abroad. The French leaflet 'Avis aux hessois' spoke of "blood money" for example, and that the Landgrave (Friedrich II) sold his country's children. There was speak of "white slaves", in the Netherlands there were many pamphlets against the soldiers trade. In Hessen itself nobody spoke out against it.
10:52
Basically, you had three levelson which the territory, the state Hessen-Kassel actually benefited. That is on the rulers level, since the majority of the money went to the Landgrave, Friedrich II in these crucial years. This money was, in turn, invested in public works, which we still know today and appreciate. The Museum Fridericianum, the first public museum on the continent was built in this period of English subsidies, the rent for the Hessian soldiers. The level below is generally spoken the economic development of the territory as a whole. Most of the equipment of the soldiers is prepared in the territory for example. For the companies, for manufacturers it was an economic boost. The third, very individual, level is really an economical financial advantage that each individual soldier, and his family had. The pay in America was higher than the wages here in Hessen.
12: 33-13: 21
If you read letters written by the soldiers, they complain that life there, food etcetera is so expensive. But the families who stayed back here also benefited if the soldiers wanted a part of their pay to be sent to their families. There were basically global banks: The soldiers made their money in the US, part of their pay was then transferred from England, from London via Dutch banks in Amsterdam and Hamburg banks, to the Landgrave's war chest in Kassel. This was where the local families could then pick up the money.
50:48
There were also Africans involved in these cycles. The "Hessian Negroes", as they were called at that time. Mostly freed or escaped slaves from America joined the Hessians, often recruited as drummers. Fighting the Americans who were the slave holders. Some even came over to Hessen later.
51: 29-51: 48
There are some Hessians that write about the American society, seeing most things as quite positive, and much too as strange. Such as the denominational diversity: There were five churches in one village for example, while in Hessen there would be only one. But what was really formulated consistently negative and accusatory was slavery.
Mostly in diaries, and also in letters. There is, for example, a report of which they did not know whether this was a legend, a kind of "Urban Myth", then perhaps more "Rural Myth". A story which emerges in many historic cases. About a black man tormented by his master again and again. Until he, in his despair, kills the family of the slaveholder and finally robs himself of his own life. That is, for example, a story that recurs [in records].
America is actually seen almost entirely positive, The Hessians are partly critical about the society, partly disconcerted, but really critical about the issue of slavery. Since for the relatively enlightened population that already existed here at that time, this was not acceptable. We can clearly say the shared Hessian perception of slavery is that it is something that completely repels them.
We can also see several former slaves appear as court musicians in Hessen not much later.
Although the Hessians were fighting abroad, they were not ideologically exploited. The Hessians did not see themselves as a military that would give the order to combat this abuse.

That's a lot! I will read it soon!

Ok cool, could you send me the documentation of the event at Schirn?

Ah yes, of course! We were super happy with the introduction by our director btw, he really wrote a nice text!

Oh and btw, I got the translation of the letter the Proffessor read from the Hessian soldier's diary..

'One can see that blacks inherently have a sensitive heart. No one of us all is to deny that the blacks are all of better character than the whites, even if it it does not seem so at first. The bad treatment in all of life’s basic needs, the knowledge that they are slaves of an evil nation makes them sad and silent. A shame it is for the whole human race, how barbaric some deal with them, and one is overtaken by a shudder if you look at it. The Americans, although delicate and hospitable, feel nothing of this. In some instances, both male and female of twelve to sixteen years walk around naked and sometimes have to serve at the table. With the local climate here everything is maturing early, so there is no doubt that this, also in the human body has its influence and accomplishes everything earlier than it usually happens with us. In short everything seems very complete and serves quick laughter and sad thought. The blacks have nothing to cover themselves because their masters don’t provide them with it. How they work so naked in the rain, cold and heat, so they also at night sleep on the bare ground. The cattle are treated better with us. Would the blacks be encouraged to science, they would do better than many whites before, because they are not only eager to learn but also have genius.'

Thanks! Did you do it yourself?

With some help! There is probably an official translation out there, but I think this works too!

I think it works well, although it is strange to read it, still sounds old fashioned..

Yeah but I like how it shows the ethical concerns the Hessians had with American society (already then haha)

Ok thanks Constant! Keep us posted!

Will do!!

February 29, 2016

Hey Constant, how are you?

And how is it going with the army?

Hi Fabian, the army didnt actually do so much, it was quite hard to use the sotware, we did some actions, but I think the creation of the army was the most important part of it.. And that most of them survived the article on the BBC : )

My concerns with working with people in lower wage countries making fake people for cheap is the most important to me in the end. How certain identities are worth than other more in real life, and online as well..

its very strange to pay money to controle thousands of identities.. it's such a strange power to give people hundreds of likes..

Make people feel good, and make topics more popular..

But I felt so weird when I was aksing the guy to remove the 'non-white' profile pictures because of my concept of a Hessian army...

The Pakistani kid, 19 years old, needed to remove pictures with the same skin color, I just felt to weird.

I asked him later to leave them, it was just to weird to pay someone to do that...

In the end the commitee of people I wanted to decide what the army would do didnt say anything, and I think the point has been made.. What do you think?

The context is quite clear now with all the articles..

I think I agree, the work is clear, it is the possibility of an army after all..